[MD] Dawkins a Materialist

[Platt Holden]

Hi All,

Fascinating article in today's NY Times entitled "Free Will: Now You 
Have It, Now You Don't." It touches on many subjects discussed here 
including causality, quantum physics and emergent properties. Most of 
all, it describes challenges by some scientists to the  notion of free 
choice, the sine qua non of a moral value system, not to mention a 
metaphysics of quality.

I particularly like the author's view of emergent phenomena when he 
asks, "A knowledge of quarks is no help in predicting hurricanes -- 
it's physics all the way down. But does the same apply to the stock 
market or to the brain? Are the rules elusive just because we can't 
solve the equations or because something fundamentally new happens when 
we increase numbers and levels of complexity? Opinions vary about 
whether it will ultimately prove to be physics all the way down, total 
independence from physics, or some shade in between, and thus how free 
we are."

In other words, science doesn't know.  

You can find the article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/health/02essa.html

Platt